A$AP Nast Looked Up To Tupac’s Style Growing Up

Enjoying the success of his very 1990s-driven single “Trillmatic,” A$AP Nast gears up for the release of the A$AP Mob project, L.O.R.D. The Harlem rapper is not only known for his rhymes but also for the fashion trends he has set with his crew. Always with his swag on a hundred, we caught up with Mob member A$AP Nast to speak on the influence his collective has had in hip-hop when it comes to fashion, his favorite kicks and more.

I know you are very much into fashion, but was rapping the first choice for you?
Rapping was more of a hobby for me back in the day. I look at myself more in the fashion tip than the rapping tip, but at the same time rapping is what put me out there and it’s what people appreciate from me more, so I gotta do more of that right now.

The “Trillmatic” video gives off that 1990s feel from the music to the garments you wear. Where did you end up getting all the throwback jerseys and vintage gear seen in the video?
At this store in the city called Mr. Throwback. I went there the day before we shot the video and met Mike who runs the store—real cool guy—and I asked him if I could borrow wild shit for the video. He agreed, and the next morning I picked up a whole bunch of shit and you know we swagged it out real ’90s shit. I really wanted to take people back to that era from the song to the clothing with the visual.

What clothing brands did you rock back in the days?
Definitely Nike. I wore a lot of Karl Kani, Tommy Hilfiger, Nautica and Polo of course.

What rapper did you look up to as far as fashion goes?
Definitely Pac. I always got along with Pac’s swag.

Do you have a favorite sneaker of all time?
That’s hard. I wear Converse a lot, all the Jordan classics, and then I just be on my designer shit every and now then.

Could we expect to see you come out with your own clothing line in the future?
I don’t know about a clothing line, maybe some collabs, but you can definitely expect some pieces from me in the near future.

A brand in particular that you would like to collab with?
Definitely Nike, and there’s a few more brands that I would have in mind, but Nike is a company I would like to collab with since I wear the brand a lot.

The current fashion in hip-hop is very much influenced by the Mob. How do you feel about people dressing up like A$AP Mob members?
The proof is in the pudding. From the minute that we joined this industry we came through with that swag. We didn’t give a fuck, we just had that attitude, but when you look at our transition into the industry it was a complete shift. Now you got rappers that are gang banging doing this and that and they wearing what we wearing, but back in the days it wasn’t cool to dress like us. We were in the hood and niggas was looking at us like we were gay, but how was it possible that we were gay? We were fucking the baddest bitches and we were on the scene a lot, so it couldn’t be that. We just didn’t give a fuck. Nobody in the rap scene and from the hood came out on some fashion shit like we did. We were born to do this. I walk outside every day and I see a million muthafuckas that look like A$AP niggas. I don’t hate it though. At one period we were trippin’ as to why niggas was biting our style, but we learned through the process of us doing what we do that when you have something good people are going to follow that. Now we just embrace it for what it is.